The True Value of a Volunteer Hour

There’s a number in our CRM reports at The Store that translates our volunteers’ hours into a labor cost we didn’t have to pay.

That’s true.

And it completely misses the point.

We keep a volunteer “leader board.”

I look at it more than I probably need to.

3,270 people have given us their time this year. Nearly 25,000 hours between them.

There’s a line in our reporting that values those hours at $868,381.13.

The thirteen cents is my favorite part.

Somewhere, a formula is being very precise about something that’s nearly impossible to quantify.

I understand why the number matters. Funders ask for it. Boards need it. It helps show that a volunteer program is material to the work, not decorative.

I report it, and I’ll keep reporting it.

Here’s what it can’t hold.

CJ has given 409 hours this year. That’s more than ten working weeks.

Pascale and Bruce are up there too, at 357 and 344. They’re married. I wrote about them a couple weeks ago.

Amy is on that list.

So is Tony, who I've written about before. He's a volunteer. Nobody pays him. But when he's on a shift, he's at "work". He'd tell you so himself.

I think about that a lot.

Tony absolutely saves The Store money. So do thousands of volunteers. Their time allows a small staff to do far more than we ever could alone.

But that may be the least interesting thing about what they give us.

They’re the faces welcoming our neighbors into the grocery store. They stock shelves, push carts, answer questions and make people feel at home. They support our staff and each other. They notice when something needs doing and do it. They come early. They stay late. And over time, many of them become our friends.

That matters in a place built around dignity and community. The experience our neighbors have at The Store isn’t created by groceries alone. It’s created by people.

So I don’t think Tony is simply donating labor.He has a job here.

It’s one he chose.

I’ll keep putting $868,381.13 in the report because it tells an important part of the story.

I just don’t want anyone to mistake it for the whole story.

CJ, Pascale, Bruce, Amy, Tony — and 3,265 others — thank you for coming to work.